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Are You Happy?

• Kyle Kaplanis / Atdhe Trepca / Are You Happy • Episode 62

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In this episode, we talk with Atdhe Trepca who is a filmmaker and producer of the Are You Happy Documentary, and the owner of the successful TikTok channel @areyouhappy that has amassed a following of 3.2M followers (as of 9/29/2021)

Atdhe lets us in on his journey of why he got started on this documentary, and we share a few snippets of some of the people he met along the way including a video that went viral that led him to gain 1 million new followers in less than 48 hours. 

Atdhe shares some insights about how brands and creators can best optimize their channel and the best methods for posting. This is one episode you do not want to miss. 

If you want to join Atdhe and the Are you Happy team you can help him create videos in your city and ask people "Are You Happy?" to do so you can visit www.happypeople.me/creator and become an interviewer today! 

Guest:

Atdhe Trepca 
Filmmaker and Producer for the Documentary "Are You Happy" and
TikTok Creator - @areyouhappy
3.2M Followers

Connect with Atdhe on Linkedin 

Social Media:

Follow Kyle on TikTok: @kylekaplanis

Follow Kyle on IG: @kyle_kaplanis

Reach out to Kyle directly at kyle.kaplanis@prjtztalent.com

Follow Kyle on Linkedin: Kyle Kaplanis

Check out our website to meet the team, view show notes and transcripts: www.biztok.co

Support the show (https://paypal.me/biztok)

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Kyle Kaplanis:

Welcome back to another episode of BizTok for TikTok. Today we're going to be talking about one of the top questions in personal human existence and our experiences. And the question is , are you happy? I have in the studio today is Adthe Trepca, who's a filmmaker based out of L.A, New York. And you probably have known him for his documentary called are you happy documentary? And you can see it over on TikTok. Most likely you have seen some of the videos pop up on your, for you page, from his channel. Are you happy? And I'm really excited to have him in the studio today to talk about his journey, and what has led him over to the app and what successes he's having over there. So Adthe welcome to BizTok for TikTok.

Atdhe Trepca:

Hey, Kyle, thank you so much for inviting me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Kyle Kaplanis:

First things first, I like to give my guests more background, cause we're all really excited to talk about TikTok. But I want to know a little bit more about you. Tell us a little bit more about who you are and some of your experiences so far.

Atdhe Trepca:

I'm a filmmaker. I've worked for some of the largest studios in the world. Largest brands in the world as a director. And recently I created my own personal documentary series called are you happy? That's blown up on social media right now. We have just about 3 million followers within a year period. So it's a really exciting time for me. I've also been able to create a content creation agency. That uses the insights I've gained from building a social media, following working with some of the largest brands in the world to create content. I created this content creation agency to help brains and businesses also grow their social media presence because a lot of brands and businesses understand the power of social media, but they don't yet have it in house creator. They don't really have an editing team or a video team. So my agency fills that. So it's been a lot of fun growing on TikTok and also creating this business, which I started in April, but it's been very successful ever since.

Kyle Kaplanis:

That's awesome. So outside of the documentary you're doing all sorts of fun things, working with a lot of brands and helping them be able to be more creative in bringing that aspect to their company as well, which is exciting because a lot of people who listen to my show are in that field are listening to get inspired. On how to come to things like that. So this is beneficial as well, to hear more about that. So thought about this documentary, where did this documentary come from? What were the thoughts there?

Atdhe Trepca:

I believe that every single stranger has a story. Let's not even something that I believe is true. Every person that you see on this. Right. Every car that drives by is filled with people that are living a life just as complex as yours. And, it's easy to forget that because you get wrapped up in your own life. And I thought it would be really interesting if you made a documentary series or a video series that showed that and gave these strangers a platform to share their story. With that. I started a road trip from LA to New York and February of 2019. And, drove across the country, interviewing people along the way. And I didn't think much of it at the time. I thought it was just going to be a fun project, but I started posting on social media and now the rest is history.

Kyle Kaplanis:

I've seen countless of your videos pop up on my 4g page. And that's how I involved wanting to learn more because I was really inspired by it.. I love your thinking there of everybody has a story because a hundred percent true, a little bit more about my background too. I worked in healthcare for a long time. I was a respiratory therapist and I did work in a long-term care setting. And I did ask a lot of people. Even in their dying days and just asking them questions about their life and, some people who have the simplest background, who we think they're not that important, they're not that exciting had some of the best stories ever. And I love the fact that you're opening it up to anybody you see, because we don't need these huge titles to have an incredible story, to be able to give back to anybody else. So I love your vision. So you kick this off, was it in 2019, you started posting or that's just when you started going

Atdhe Trepca:

through 2019, I started recording and I had worked for Warner brothers, worked for a couple of production companies and typically somebody in my position will pitch an idea to a production company or a studio and then get funding to create it. And then, you're just creating it with that company. So after I shot it, I put together a pitch and I started sending it out to different companies, got rejected multiple times. and then I said, let me just start posting it myself. And once I was just doing it for myself and not other people, I was creating something that I wanted to see. Right. And I think people connected with.

Kyle Kaplanis:

That's really cool. Did you first decide to post on take talk, or did you start on other platforms first?

Atdhe Trepca:

I actually started on TikTok. My brother was using it at the time. I had never seen it, used it before, and I saw he was posting some content and one of his videos got like 50,000 views, just a random video. And so let me check out this. And then I just downloaded it just to watch videos. And then I thought, what if I just start posting the best clips of the interviews that I did? And so I posted three videos, back to back, and then I forgot about it. And then I checked in like a few hours later and each of the videos had over 300 views. I knew then that there was a lot of opportunity there because how old are

Kyle Kaplanis:

you? Me? I'm 34.

Atdhe Trepca:

Okay. So you remember early YouTube days, 2007, 2008 people blowing up overnight. Cause the algorithm was really supporting new talent. So When I saw that, I got over 300 views on each of my videos organically. It brought me right back to the early days of YouTube I was like, okay, I see what I have to do here. I understand how the algorithm works. I understand what I have to do. I started posting. April 6, 20, 20, and then ever since then, I post them minimum of once a day, every day. And then within a week of posting, one of our videos had 7 million views. So it was a no brainer.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Absolutely. In the beginning, obviously people would dream and hope for these viral videos, but were you still excited and saw the vision when you saw, 300 views just off your off?

Atdhe Trepca:

Yeah, that was a big win for me. That was a big win. I ran downstairs, my brother, I said, I'm going to blow up on TikTok. I know exactly how it's supposed to do it. Because you know, you post a random video on YouTube. You're lucky if you get 20 views now, but I remember in 2008 when I would make videos, you would see that organic. I never had a viral moment I've adage, but when I saw it happen on TikTok, I said, okay, I understand that.

Kyle Kaplanis:

My colleague and I, that worked for project Z, our agency, he always says that it's like seeing the same movie. So basically he watched the movie of YouTube and how it works. And he said, it's almost like a Spider-Man reboot in a way that take talk was the same thing. Like you, you could see the early vision where it's going to go. And, that's why we started our agency We'll take talkers. Cause on the YouTube side, he exclusively represent Pewdie pie, which is the largest YouTuber on earth. And then we decided, how can we transform this and work with TikTok readers? So it's interesting that you saw that too with your videos and said, okay, this is definitely the new plot. This is where the traction is. Let's go ahead and go. and you told your brother I'm going to blow up on TikTok. I love that you already knew that right away and right away. Was he, also on board? Was he supportive of you during that time?

Atdhe Trepca:

After that, I set up a long table in my bedroom and he would be on one end of the table and I'd be on one end and we would just work. That was about three months straight, where we just worked together. And we still work together. Like that video that you mentioned earlier, he's actually the one who.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Oh, wow. That's interesting. And you were at 1.5 million followers and to this state, you're at 2.8 million followers which is massive, huge congratulations to you and your success so far. I already know you guys are going to grow much more than this, but I love that you said that this particular video. Really help boost you almost a million followers. A million followers really came from this particular video?

Atdhe Trepca:

Yeah, it was about a million new followers within a 48 hour period. That's

Kyle Kaplanis:

crazy. Yeah. That's massive. I wanted to share that video because, for one it is really powerful, but for the audience that does watch this later, to be able to see what that video is. And if you're listening to this on this podcast episode, go to the description notes, I will have a link directly to this video on the, are you happy TikTok channel? And you can see what video this is, but I wanted to play that for you guys now. So here it is.

Atdhe Trepca:

Quick question for document, Andrea, the question is, are you happy?

Kyle Kaplanis:

This is one of my bucket list items. I had a hip replacement and heart surgery a couple of years ago, and this has been one of my goals. So I am very happy.

Atdhe Trepca:

And if you had one message to tell the entire world,

Kyle Kaplanis:

well, um, there's a song by Toby Keith called don't let the old man in goes for the woman too. You just can't. As you get older, I'm 70. You can't let the old person, man.

Atdhe Trepca:

Thank you. What'd you say to someone that's struggling with happiness?

Kyle Kaplanis:

I had spare depression at one time at, for me, the only thing that

Atdhe Trepca:

worked were meds. I don't believe in counseling too much.

Kyle Kaplanis:

I love that video. That video came up on my you page, and he came up on millions and millions of peoples for you pages because for one, you gained a million followers, within a 48 hour period, but that video is sitting at over 25 million views, I believe, which is incredible. And I think there's a lot of things that we could take away from a video like that. She is a normal person. She talks about things that people struggle with. Everyday. Depressions will big one mental health awareness, that's what I love about the power of TikTok and your documentary is we don't need to hear it from people who are celebrities. Just regular people we can connect to on a human level. And I think TikTok has really inspired that and we're seeing that more and more and more is that TikTok is really opening up more of that human connection. And there's a lot of people that can learn from that. Did, you know, right away when you saw that video, this is going to be a winner.

Atdhe Trepca:

No, actually, no. It was a bit of a surprise. I uploaded at 3m. I fell asleep and woke up at 5 million views. And then it just kept growing and growing and growing. But when I first saw it, no, I didn't expect that it would do that well. But the thing that you mentioned, that this is, I'm a real person, we don't need a celebrity. You know what I mean? You don't need any fancy cameras. That's kind at the core of what I've been doing for other brands and businesses now where, we're creating content for them. That's very digital centric. And not Shawn, anything better than an iPhone, because are you happy? Kind of taught me that you don't need to be Steven Spielberg to have a huge impact on a large audience. You just need to have a good story. And good motivation. And we've been bringing that successfully to businesses, through this agency that I started.

Kyle Kaplanis:

So basically what you were telling me is that, throughout your process of high production. And as a filmmaker, you probably came into that setting of thinking that, but as you were going along with this documentary, you realize that being real and being relatable to people is, using what we have at hand is in a phone. And right now you're educating and inspiring brands and saying, Hey, look as a creator and showing your brand or your business, you really need to connect more on that human level. and you don't need this huge production. Is that what you're doing with your creative?

Atdhe Trepca:

That's exactly right. And, it's faster to do. It's cheaper to do. And it's, a higher bang for your buck because we've really ironed out the TikTok process and one works on TikTok and what doesn't. Within the first week of them working with us, they're already like, oh, wow. Oh, okay. Now I see the power of this platform.

Kyle Kaplanis:

And what would you say, for brands or businesses listening, what are those qualities when you're talking to a client, how do you tell them, this is the new way. What are the things that brands should be looking for when it comes to production?

Atdhe Trepca:

Being really aggressive, in terms of volume and keeping authenticity as a core value, it's really three things. It's consistency, high volume and authenticity. You want to be aggressive. It's a conversation with the client, what does our budget allows us to do? Does it allow us to do 10 posts a day, 20 posts a day? So 20 posts a day. Great. Now we're going to have to be consistent with that. We can't skip a day. We can't attend one day in and do 15 another day on a 20 another day. So high volume consistent and authentic. We put those three together for our clients and, produces significant.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Absolutely. And then during that time, like with the high volume, is it just constantly testing different ways maybe different video styles, different storylines, different aspects. And then you see what sticks and then change the strategy up to do more videos like that, but still higher volumes.

Atdhe Trepca:

Yeah. We keep the volume up and within that volume, we call them slops and every video has its own slot. Read video is considered a slot and a slot is categorized as a theme or subject or target. Audience or whatever the goal is. So say one slot is inspire. And so within that slot every day at that slots dedicated time, we posted an inspiring video and then there's entertaining. There's an informative, there's comedic, there's, sales, and then we've built the system and that watches, those slots sees how they perform and cycles out low performance. Spots and cycles in new experimental stuff. And as the experimental stuff does well, that stays in and the stuff that isn't performing well, it's kicked out. And then over time you end up with this like highly optimized. Posting schedule that every single slot is already proven to have gone viral. At one point, within a three month period, you're only working with proven

Kyle Kaplanis:

man. I think that's really important. A lot of brands or even creators in general have one of the biggest failures is that they try to niche down to specific in the beginning with their strategy. Like it's so specific. And they're not creating enough volume because they're just so focused on this one thing and thinking that's, what's going to work because they've seen other creators or something that works for them. But what I found as well, watching people, watching creators is that those that come in with a broad aspect having different spots, like you said, like inspiring, but this, this, this having all these different, mythologies, And they're able to increase their volume. They're able to see what works and be able to improve on those that do, and then take away those that don't. And I think that's why, your clients see success so quickly is because they're doing that strategy versus niche down too much and are only thinking about inspired, inspired, inspire, but maybe that doesn't work for them, because every, thing doesn't work for every. Regardless, you could even be like a very similar brand, but maybe you just don't have that authentic vibe to that specific slot or criteria within your video. Would you agree that's something that brands or creators in general fail being too specific sometimes?

Atdhe Trepca:

Yeah. That's a good question. If it creator is listening to this, I'd say don't worry about strategy and niche and, your number one focus should be having fun and then everything starts from there. And as your goals and your intentions become bigger, then you know, search to nail down a process. But if you're just like, Hey, I want to have fun. I want to express myself. I want to track large audience then those are your motivations. Then just do what you want. Okay. If you're working with businesses, like I do, they want to see results and they want a structure plan and they want KPIs and they want milestones and I get that. So for that reason, I highly encourage brands to have a consistent system like this, something that's automated, that will, remove human error. Hold your hand along the way. I don't want creators to listen to this and be like, oh, I need to plus 20 times a day and I need slots. I need categories. I need a system that say no, just have fun.

Kyle Kaplanis:

It is true. You mentioned the word authentic and you could almost feel when somebody's trying to. If you're just authentic and put it out there, like I do talk to some creators and they've had success. And, I had a girl in my show recently who was having a lot of success right now with her videos. Her name's Ella Watkins by the way. She mentioned that sometimes she goes back through her videos and editing. And she doesn't feel like it's good because she said something wrong. And then she started realizing I'm going to leave those in because that's just the authentic first go vibe. And when she said, for some reason, those videos where she just lets go of her mindset, because it was fun. And in the moment she keeps it in there that's those videos seem to do better. And I think it's true. People can fill that authenticity with their videos and you can see it. Like those that I see on my page that are really low. It's because it feels so relatable and real, like I was in the room with them watching it in that time, it wasn't scripted. It was just fun. And you could just feel it.

Atdhe Trepca:

Yeah. And if you're consistent enough, there will be an audience that develops around you. But you have to make the decision of , do I want this audience to love me for who I am? Or do I want them to love an ideal version of me. One is going to happen if you're consistent enough and you're patient enough, so choose. And if you choose that this audience of people will love the authentic version of you to integrate a much easier process, it'll even be quicker. Just the difficult part is you have to love yourself and you have to be okay with who you are. And, stop cutting out your stuttering, stop cutting out your failures, your missteps and, show them the real you. And it'll be great. Once it actually hits, it'll be great because it's , oh wow. They like me. They're really, really.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yeah. And then when people meet you. So like for instance, my, my daughter has 2.5 million followers on the app. And I've always told her in the beginning, just be yourself because when people meet you in person and you're maybe something different than you portray, it's going to be really awkward. So if you're just always yourself, then when people meet you there. She's really is like that, or she's really fun in that way. And everybody that does meet here, they're like, you're so nice. You're so real. You really are like these videos. And that's, exciting as a person that people really love you as a person versus like you said, this fake persona, this thing that you want people to think you are, and then, people might meet you and realize that, okay, who they are, which we, see that sometimes I think with the traditional celebrities out there who we almost felt like they were somebody else because of a character they play. And then maybe you meet them in person. And you're like, wow, they're actually not the nicest or they're actually nicer than their character is. Is there any, other tips that you would give to brands or businesses, outside of these areas we talked about,

Atdhe Trepca:

I would recommend that every brand or business hire an in-house creator, somebody that's there to document record, Content that attracts your target customer. But if you don't have an in-house creator, I suggest looking for creators such as myself that provide that service. And the reason I say is because right now we are right on the tail end of these platforms being over-saturate. I feel like we're already there to be honest, but I do think there's still room, but it won't last long. And, this boom that we see in people, in gaining huge followings overnight, it will fade just like YouTube. And it'll eventually become commercial and you won't be able to swipe through the FYP without seeing 10 Justin Bieber music videos first so that you know that they will come and it will come very soon. And it's up to businesses now to get in while we're getting. And stake their place in the ground. And that's what we're helping businesses do.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yeah, it is true. my podcast has been going for over a year and I've been telling people from a year ago saying, look, you're one day going to listen to my podcast and take some of these advice that I've had. But I've been telling you since day one that you should have started then, because it was a lot easier and there was a lot more room for error and more testing. But you still have room to grow and try things out, but it is true. it's way harder. I've seen it tightened down just even within some big creators views. We've talked in, some of my creators their views are not as consistent anymore. It's just, it's getting a lot harder, regardless of even how big you've grown on the app, you have to really fight for every slot on that for you., and I agree, we're going to see that become more and more and more tight, just like YouTube, to be able to break out on YouTube, I think is, I think they say only one creator per year really breaks out, which is crazy. And eventually it's going to be like that with, TikTok and it's getting there.

Atdhe Trepca:

But, just like YouTube lost sight of what made them great in the beginning. And TikTok filled that gap, technical inevitably lose sight of it, and then something else will come in and fill the gap. So it's on us as creators and agency owners to keep our ear to the ground, which platforms are on the road.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yeah. We , constantly see that. It's just , like I was saying before a Spider-Man reboot, how many Spiderman have there been and will there be another Spiderman in the future? Absolutely. Like they probably will. That's just how we are. We recycle things and somebody else will play that character, just like a platform. Somebody else will be that main movie that we all jumped to in the future. So it is true. It's always, about keeping your ear off. and understanding what's going to be next. And I think TikTok will be around for a while though. Um, and yeah, so this is still something that people definitely need to be, putting a lot of , their, focus on if they want to be in the social media game and being able to be. A hundred percent. Awesome. Talk to me a little bit about how people can follow this documentary and is there a way for them to be involved?

Atdhe Trepca:

Yeah, actually, aren't you happy? It's a documentary series and much, I travel around the world and ask random strangers if they're. And then I future, through that question, I give a platform to their life story. this is a little bit of it. So the documentary will be done in the next month or so. If you would like to interview people in your city and ask them if they're happy, you could go to www.happypeople.com. Back slash creators. If you can put it in the show notes, and then you sign up there and you'll receive an email with a Google drive link to start submitting your interviews. We already have 10,000 people that have signed up, which is really awesome.

Kyle Kaplanis:

That's awesome. So basically regardless of where you are in the world, you can sign up and be able to interview people within your cities and ask them, are you happy and hear their story and learn those inspiring moments that's basically , what anybody can do to help along with this. And you've probably had some really incredible videos come in , from people who have signed up, have. Oh,

Atdhe Trepca:

my God. It's amazing to think about where we started and where we are now. Wow. Wow. That's crazy. How life goes. Like I was like 50 pounds fatter alone in a car had just quit. My full-time job had very little direction unsure of where this would end up if anybody would ever want. And now it's a global platform with 10,000 people around the world doing the same thing. I lost 50 pounds. Nice. And it's just been an amazing. Wow,

Kyle Kaplanis:

what an incredible journey , to hear. And I love it. You just took your passions, your dreams to tell somebody, story. And here you are with all the success and along the way you got healthier, which is a huge win in itself, man. I need to jump on that myself, man. COVID was not good for me. So I'm working on that too, but people can go if they want to learn a lot more about this and watch some of the videos and they can go to happy people.me. Is that correct? Yeah.

Atdhe Trepca:

Happy people.me. And then, it'll take you to the whole

Kyle Kaplanis:

perfect. And then on your socials, they can find you on TikTok. Is, are you happy? Is that correct? Yeah.

Atdhe Trepca:

TikTok. Are you happy? Instagram? Are you happy? Twitter. Are you happy?

Kyle Kaplanis:

Awesome. Those of you that are listening, check out the show notes. I have links to every social channel. Also the link directly to, if you wanted to sign up and help become one of the creators who create some of these videos, asking people. Are you happy? And I really appreciate your time today and coming on the show. And I think that a lot of people can learn from this show and hearing your journey is really inspiring. So I really appreciate the time today to talk to me and be on the BizTalk for TikTok podcast.

Atdhe Trepca:

Thank you so much for vitamin means a lot.

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